Why do old, dysfunctional patterns for handling conflict re-emerge and persist in the workplace, even after providing training, policies or procedures for resolving differences constructively? This vexing phenomenon—a return to the status quo–plagues conflict professionals and team leaders alike. The main culprit is not individuals clashing; instead it is the team’s culture—the social environment—which sets communication patterns and strongly influences how members behave when they encounter conflict. But how do we get a handle on conflict at the work team level? First we need to concretely assess a team’s “conflict climate” and then take steps to improve aspects of the climate that are negatively influencing members’ conflict behavior. In this program Michael Dues will discuss a powerful online instrument for diagnosing conflict climate in the workplace. He will describe what it measures, how it can guide interventions to gain long term, sustainable improvement in conflict management, and why it is especially useful to use an online survey for this purpose.

Curiosity: “Culture” and “climate” are vague, intangible concepts. How do we make them concrete enough to measure and improve?

Today’s organizations require that workers be adaptable. Truly effective leaders know how to follow and how it feels to be a follower. Conversely, in order to be a productive team member, one must understand the difficulties of being a team leader. The daily “dance” between leaders and followers requires mutual understanding and a balance of give and take. As the great Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, said: “To lead, one must follow.” In this program, Yael Schy, creator of the Teamwork Tango® leadership training approach, shares her philosophy and methodology of using partner dancing principles and exercises for helping leaders and followers in organizations to work together more collaboratively and effectively.

In a globally converging business environment, it is common to find multi-cultural and multi-generational talent pool. Managers may face challenges to effectively manage this diversity. Join us as our guest, Prabu Naidu will share his experience in helping managers and organizations in Asia navigate in this rough waters.

Front-line managers to CEOs are all asked to put out fires and fix problems. Stephen Kotev, my guest co-host and I will discuss a simple way to determine what is going wrong in the workplace. We will focus on what managers can do to unravel their problems and understand new ways of breaking down issues into resolvable segments. We will review 5 areas that are the most common root causes to conflict. Identifying the right one is crucial to resolving the conflict effectively.

Got Conflict? This special report show will be at a special time at 8:30 pm CST. We will be recording live from San Diego as a result of training and coaching others to facilitate effective work-groups.

When we talk about group conflict think about the groups and communities you belong to such as your neighborhood Home Owner’s Association, church group, PTA at school, work groups and teams, or maybe you volunteer in groups like the Scout troops, non-profit leadership teams, etc.

What happens when conflict erupts in those groups? How is it managed and dealt with? What role do you play as a member of that group? What do you contribute to the problem resolution or do you just wash your hands of the problem and sit back hoping that others with take care of the situation.

We explore these group dynamics and look at your role in group conflict.